Everton 4 - 3 PSV Eindhoven

Half-time: 3 - 1

PSV dominated the second half, scoring two more goals but a fine opportunist piece of goal-poaching by Jeffers, who subbed for Campbell, let Everton carry off the accolades.

Everton are still not really impressing, leaving many with a feeling of fear and trepidation over what may be in store on Sunday.

Everton continued to play well in the first half and there was some nice interpassing between 7-8 players in the 22nd minute, which was a real joy to watch.

A minute later Don Hutchison, stood over the ball with a direct free kick, with the worst defensive wall you will probably ever see in your life in front of him, he took advantage and drove the ball into the back of the net, with the keeper stood still, no chance.

In the 30th minute, Campbell's second goal came from a perfectly weighted ball from Don Hutchison, who split the defence. Campbell timed his run perfectly and placed the ball in the net.

PSV scored in the 35th minute, with a goal scored by Ruud van Nistelrooij, which I thought was offside. He went round Paul Gerard quite easily to score their first goal of the night.

Second half

For the first ten minutes of the second half PSV had total possession and our back four was at total sixes and sevens. In fact, the whole of the second half was dominated by PSV.

In the 64th minute, Everton made their first substitution. On came Franny Jeffers for Kevin Campbell, a striker for striker swap.  Four minutes later, Paul Gerard, did himself a power of good in the eyes of Walter Smith, with a double point-blank save, which must surely place him in contention for the starting line-up on Sunday.

At 72 minutes a triple substitution: on came Alex Cleland for Nick Barmby; Danny Cadamarteri for Scot Gemmill; on came Ronnie Ekelund for Mitch Ward.

PSV Eindhoven's second goal came in the 80th minute, scored by Arnold Bruggink from a 30-yd run through midfield, finishing with a one-to-one with the keeper, where he went around the helpless Gerrard and slotted in a well executed goal.

Everton's fourth goal of the night came in the 83rd minute when Franny Jeffers latched on to a terrible defensive mistake and walked the goal into an empty net. Within a few minutes, PSVs' Arnold Bruggink took advantage of three Everton defenders and took his goal well.

Overall, Everton played the first 45 minutes well, but the second half left a lot to be desired. If this was a school report card, it would say "could do better". On this showing, what will Man Utd do to us on Sunday, I ask myself. Only time will tell....

What last night revealed was a painful lack of width in the side.  I can only recall Mitch Ward getting forward into an attacking position once all match, Bally barely made it over the half way line.  The midfield is lightweight without Hutchison, Ekelund can put himself about a bit as he did when he came on.  Joe Parkinson fit again would be a massive plus.

Collins was awful.  He doesn't like it when the opposition start pressing him in his own half, as PSV did superbly.  The play was static with no movement off the ball, in complete contrast to PSV who played the game simply but moved well (a simple give and go murdered us repeatedly down the right in the second half).

We are clueless at throw ins, not having grasped the concept that you need to lose your marker, and take throws quickly before the opposition have set themselves and marked up.  When will our keeper learn that a massive boot up field is a pathetic attacking strategy in today's game?

The players to gain credit from last night were Gough, Gerrard and Jeffers, Campbell and Hutchison. The finishing was generally good.  In short, a major improvement is needed before Sunday in nearly every department. Maybe there's still time to reduce the pitch width by another few feet.

After having an earlier effort cancelled out for offside, Campbell opened the scoring in the 19th minute with a close range   header and Hutchison doubled the lead four minutes later in the most bizarre fashion.  As the Eindhoven keeper attempted to line up a defensive wall, Hutchison spotted a gap and rifled home a direct   free-kick from 20 yards.

To the delight of the Blues faithful, Campbell was on target again on the half hour when he ran through before confidently steering the ball under the keeper to make it 3-0.  Ruud van Nistelrooy pulled a goal back for the visitors 7 minutes before the break but it had definitely been Everton's  half.

Paul Gerrard was called upon to make a great double save to deny van Nistelrooy on 67 minutes but he was powerless to prevent substitute Arnold Bruggink from pulling another goal back for the visitors with ten minutes to go.

Francis Jeffers was one of a number of second half substitutes introduced by Walter Smith and the youngster got himself on the scoresheet in the 83rd minute to restore the two-goal advantage. Bruggink scored his second and Eindhoven's third a couple of minutes from time but the Blues held on to record a well earned success.

Starters: Opted for a 442 or 424 system. Gemmill, Collins and Barmby seemed to line up across the middle, with Ward out wide right pushing forward.  Unfortunately, the link up between Ward and Weir (Right Back) was what you'd expect from two defenders trying to see who could drop back to cover first. Gemmill seemed lost, Collins overenthusiastic to dwell on the ball and play dangerous one-touch football, and poor Barmby left in no-man's land on the left wing.

The impressive forward display by Don Hutchinson that threatens Frannie's place will not stand a chance against Stam et al.  In fact DH stayed flat alongside Kevin Campbell as both men played in a 'target' role. So much so that Mr Gerrard couldn't resist bringing back Joe Royle's long-ball-to-Ferguson game when he was allowed.  Don's only visits to collect the ball usually ended up in his giving away free-kicks.

But it was the back that was a real pleasure to watch.  Mr Ball thinks he has done enough singing and wants his own chat show.  He doesn't believe in pre-season obviously.  I think it might have been in order for WS to substitute him with Terry Phelan as an arse-kicking tactic.  Weir was steady enough although I prefer him at right wing-back than out and out full back as he played.  Gough was one of the shining lights – he looks far fitter and more agile than Dave Watson and did seem to be confident in and around his area.  Mr Unsworth, however, played like he has never been away for the summer.  In fact he looked like he'd been held prisoner at Bellefield in a dark cupboard and couldn't help himself on being set free.  His passing was wayward, tackling rash, and he lived on the edge.  His efforts at getting forward were rewarded with poor Gough trying to cover three men and usually Barmby or some other enthusiast making the covering tackle.

Perhaps my opinions of Paul Gerrard are stained by the few matches I saw him play under Joe Royle.  However I can't say that I ever felt relaxed when he was under pressure and I failed to notice a time when he showed anything that Dwight Yorke wouldn't take great delight in treating like a dance floor.  Myhre's ability to jump for crosses before they become a danger must be unique at Bellefield.

Subs: Cadamarteri - Unremarkable but was put on the left wing – I'd have replaced Ward – who cannot move with the ball and played him as a right winger.

Cleland - Seemed to replace Ward as right wing or some right sided position. Did not help Weir much but looked lively and keen to get forward.  Perhaps a right back with Oster/Cadamateri/Degn? in front would give us a chance.

Jeffers - A breath of fresh air – made his own chances and embarrassed his colleagues into playing good passes.  Basically he was so conspicuous in good positions that they couldn't help but play the penetrating ball.  A pity he didn't have a chance to play longer with Ekelund.

Ekelund - Definitely playing for a place. Didn't show much on the ball although he did get stuck in and maybe if he'd played alongside Campbell or Jeffers (he seemed to play centre forward) we'd have seen some good play.  Did show a couple of good touches.

But let me finish off by reassuring you – the way that Watson, Knox and Smith huddled with notebooks during the second half they must have been looking at ways of playing a Trojan Horse, bring our destructive goal machine/tough tackling midfielder/solid dependable defender/agile keeper MARK PEMBRIDGE hidden within the disjointed, nervous Everton First team.

And I'm an OPTIMIST.

Campbell struck with a header after 21 minutes and used his explosive pace to outstrip PSV defender Jan Heintze and slot home 10 minutes later.

In between Don Hutchison scored with a free-kick and substitute Francis Jeffers added a late fourth.

In truth Eindhoven dominated the play and Dutch international striker Ruud van Nistelrooj cut the lead 10 minutes before the break before substitute Arnold Bruggink added a late brace to give the scoreline a more respectable look.

Everton boss Walter Smith dropped some hints as to his thoughts for Sunday's opener against Manchester United and his only surprise was the choice of Paul Gerrard ahead of Steve Simonsen in goal.

Gerrard took his chance with a composed display and showed his quality with a brilliant double save from van Nistelrooj in the second half.

But Smith will be most pleased with the potency of his attack who displayed cool finishing.

The first goal arrived after 20 minutes when Mitch Ward's corner was headed down by Richard Gough, David Unsworth touched the ball on and Campbell headed in from two yards.

Two minutes later Hutchinson's quick free-kick caught everyone by surprise.  As John Collins lined up to take it PSV keeper Patrick Lodewijks lined up his wall, Hutchinson fired through the wall into the unguarded net.

Everton grabbed a third on 31 minutes when Hutchison's through-ball sent Campbell racing through to score his second.

PSV finally got the goal their play deserved after 35 minutes when van Nistelrooj latched on to a delicate chip over the defence, dribbled round Gerrard and fired into the roof of the net. PSV dominated the second half and Everton were holding on as van Nistelrooj dragged a low shot inches wide and then stabbed Dmitri Khokhlov's cross narrowly off target.

Everton's resistance finally broke after 80 minutes when substitute Bruggink rounded Gerrard to score.

But just as it looked as if Eindhoven might find an equaliser Jeffers burst through to cheekily dribble round the keeper to score with eight minutes remaining.

Bruggink rounded off the scoring three minutes from time when he produced a carbon copy of his first to grab his second.